"Ruined Lives" : An Analysis of Gender Relations, Youth Sexual Behavior and HIV and AIDS in Early Twenty-First-Century Kenya

Abstract

This chapter uses the idea of urban legends to decode Kenyan youth sexuality and gender relations in the context of HIV and AIDS. Two narratives, the first a confessional letter that was purportedly posted on a university notice board by ‘NP’, a student, and the second the title story by Macharia Mwangi in the collection Reversed Dreams (1998), provide the data for the study. ‘NP’ titled ‘her’ confession ‘Ruined Lives’. We retain the title ‘Ruined Lives’ in quotation marks in part because this is not our description or understanding of youth lives. Indeed, the argument consistently propounded in this chapter is that there is hope for justice and life for the human race, for the African people and even more specifically for Kenyan youth in spite of HIV and AIDS.